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August 7, 2014

Ladies, gents, and Misfiteers of all ages, please welcome Delilah S. Dawson, author of the newly released Southern Gothic Horror, SERVANTS OF THE STORM!

*

A long, long time ago, back in the 90s, my then-boyfriend
and I dreamed up a sinister-sounding mix tape called "Music to Murder By."
Whenever we heard a song that fit, we added it to the list. But of course, back
then, to make a playlist, you had to go to a music store and buy the CD, then
make the tape, so we never actually made it.

Here's the blurb for my YA Southern Gothic Horror, just so
you'll know the world you're sinking into:

Dovey learns that demons
lurk in places other than the dark corners of her mind in this southern gothic
fantasy from the author of the Blud series.

A year ago, Hurricane Josephine swept through
Savannah, Georgia, leaving behind nothing but death and destruction—and taking
the life of Dovey’s best friend, Carly. Since that night, Dovey has been in a
medicated haze, numb to everything around her.

But recently she’s started to believe she’s
seeing things that can’t be real…including Carly at their favorite café.
Determined to learn the truth, Dovey stops taking her pills. And the world that
opens up to her is unlike anything she could have imagined.

As Dovey slips deeper into the shadowy
corners of Savannah—where the dark and horrifying secrets lurk—she learns that
the storm that destroyed her city and stole her friend was much more than a
force of nature. And now the sinister beings truly responsible are out to
finish what they started.

And here's the playlist, presented in two parts:

Possum Kingdom – The Toadies

I can promise you

You'll stay as beautiful

With dark hair

And soft skin...forever

Yeah, this is a dark, swampy song about killing girls and
turning them into dolls. Which is pertinent to what's really going down in
Savannah in Servants of the Storm. This was the song that inspired Music to
Murder By, all those years ago, so it gets first place, naturally.

No One Believes Me – Kid Cudi

Have you ever felt

Something evil

Lurking around the moon is full

The streets are empty

Shadows cover the town

When I heard this one on the soundtrack of the new Fright
Night, it really stuck with me. All the lyrics basically describe Dovey's
experience of being the only person in town aware of the evil lurking just
around the corner, and whenever she mentions it, they call her crazy and tell
her to take her pills.

The Killing Moon – Echo and the Bunnymen

In starlit nights I saw you

So cruelly you kissed me

Your lips a magic world

Your sky all hung with jewels

The killing moon

Will come too soon

An oldie but a goodie. This one reminds me of Isaac when
Dovey first meets him in bowler and suspenders, his knowing smirk and bad boy
side. And yet there's a ritual sadness to the song, the reminder that the
killing moon is coming even if you wish it wouldn't.

Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars

Miles and miles in my bare feet

Still can't lay me down to sleep

If I die before I wake

I know the Lord my soul won't take

This song was the first one I ever heard by the Civil Wars,
and it perfectly captures that Southern Gothic twang of Savannah. And of
course, if you read Servants, you who *really* takes the souls...

The Letter – The Veils

All that I've lost

Is bound to pass

Dying to know

Too afraid to ask

Most Veils songs sound like starlight to me, shifting indigo
pinpricked with white flickers. This one feels old and regretful and reminds me
of Dovey streaking through the night in her grandmother's Skylark, driving too
fast toward mysterious danger on the Truman Parkway. That's what I love about
Dovey-- her loyalty to Carly means she'll run toward doom, foot on the gas,
even though she knows it's going to go badly.

Overjoyed – Bastille

And I hear you calling in the dead of night...

This song is haunting wistfulness. All Dovey wants in the
entire world is to have her best friend back, to hear her voice again. And all
she has are nightmares...

But the real (cold, black) heart of the SERVANTS OF THE
STORM playlist is Saturnalia by The Gutter Twins. When I hear this album, I'm
immediately back in Dovey's Savannah, walking a little faster and feeling like
I'm being stalked by something hidden and evil.

God's Children – The Gutter Twins

Strange the way you seem suicidal

You don't live at all, so why you cryin'?

Come and play with me and feel desire

It's all in the dark, a walk through the fire

If I had to choose one song the represented the entire book,
this would be it. It calls to mind cities brought to ruin and smoldering, wind
whipping over skeletons and ash as demons lurk in the corners, lynx ears
twitching. I like the sinister lure of Kitty and Josephine, the fact that even
though they're completely and irredeemably evil, there's just something...
fascinating about them. Since my demons and cambions are based on the mythology
around Lilith, Adam's first wife, I like the reminder that they're fallen from
grace.

All Misery/Flowers – The Gutter Twins

Make me shake me deep black water

Gonna run through my veins

Gonna make it rain

Honestly? I don't like rain. It makes me feel chased and
cornered and like I'm waiting for something to break or erode. Although this
book is written a year after Hurricane Josephine nearly destroyed Savannah,
there's an oppressive feeling that the storms are waiting to wash away what
little they've left behind. This book was inspired by a photo set of Six Flags
New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and this song feels like stalking through
the abandoned amusement park in the dark, catching antlered shadows and growing
green eyes, just out of view.

The Body – The Gutter Twins

Dream, close your eyes

I was done, you're alive

I love the dreamy galloping of this one, the sense of
dappled sunshine. It reminds me of going for a carriage ride through downtown
Savannah with my brother-in-law, the Dread Pirate Robert, and the way that the
horse trots lightly through intersections, harness jingling. This song is a
reminder that Dovey is alive, that she has little mercies despite the horror
she's living.

I Was In Love With You – The Gutter Twins

I was in Love with you

It's Ladies Choice

Bring on the boys

Love triangles in YA... you love 'em or you hate 'em. Some
people think they're cliché, but you know what? Every time I started dating
someone in high school, some other dude would suddenly show up and make me
start reconsidering my choice, whether because locking it down made other
options more apparent or because they revealed their interest only after I was
taken. Dovey isn't caught in a love triangle with Baker and Isaac because Dovey
doesn't have to choose. Two boys are interested in her, and she's interested in
helping her dead best friend. Just because your childhood friend finally says
he loves you doesn't mean you have to act on it or that you're going to
immediately swoon. I love Dovey's independence and dedication to Carly... and
the way she lets herself feel passion in the moment.

*

Delilah S. Dawson writes the steampunk fantasy Blud
series for Pocket, including Wicked as They Come, Wicked After Midnight, and
Wicked as She Wants, which recently won the Steampunk Book of the Year award
and the May Seal of Excellence from RT Book Reviews. Her first YA, Servants of
the Storm, is a Southern Gothic Horror set in Savannah, Georgia. Spring 2015
brings her next YA, HIT, a pre-dystopian about teen assassins in a bank-owned
America. Delilah loves sassy boots, eating weird animals, painting, having
adventures, and cupcakes and lives in the North Georgia mountains with her
husband, children, a Tennessee Walking Horse, and a floppy mutt named Merle.

2
comments:

I've only heard of The Civil Wars in this list, but the lyrics make me super curious about the others. Going to check them out, especially The Gutter Twins. And I read the excerpt of SotS on B&N and it was super good! Plus, I love books set in the South!